Before he jumped on a plane to South Carolina, Rep. Ron Paul (R., Texas) spoke with National Review Online about tonight’s presidential debate.

Paul, who will share the stage with Herman Cain, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, and Gary Johnson, is confident that he can make inroads in what has been, so far, a quiet primary.

“We have an army of young people excited,” Paul says. “They are being dumped on and they know it. They are sick of the system.”

Paul notes that he is not looking to craft a new persona. You can expect the longtime libertarian leader to press hard on monetary policy and national security. “I will not change my tone or my positions; I can’t,” he says. “That’s what people like about me: they know what to expect.”

“So much of my record is already out on the table,” he chuckles. “I am just going to restate what I have been stating for 30 years.”

With the death of Osama bin Laden, Paul sees an opportunity for a Republican contender to make the case for less foreign intervention. “Every day we see more people moving in that direction,” he says. “I don’t think that it will be a difficult argument to make. We have accomplished what we went over there for.”